According to the unrecognized republic’s acting foreign minister, the Moldovan government is trying to avoid Tiraspol’s proposals on the solution of a number of sensitive problems

TIRASPOL, May 11 /TASS/. Moldova’s unrecognized Republic of Transdniestria has accused Moldova of unwillingness to settle bilateral contradictions and has said that the sides are not ready for resuming the "5+2" talks (Moldova and Transdniestria; intermediaries from the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine as well as observers from the United States and the European Union), Vitaly Ignatyev, the unrecognized republic’s acting foreign minister, said at a meeting with Cord Meier-Klodt, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement, in Tiraspol on Wednesday.

"Despite the Moldovan side’s positive rhetoric, there have been no concrete actions designed to settle the contradictions," Ignatyev said. According to him, the Moldovan government is trying to avoid Tiraspol’s proposals on the solution of a number of sensitive problems, including in the field of automobile and railway transport.

These questions are constant subjects for discussion at meetings of joint expert groups, which study ways of settling the conflict in bilateral relations at the inter-departmental level. "Every concrete meeting of expert groups is a vital element of communication which makes the discussion at the negotiating table meaningful," the Transdniestrian politician said.

The OSCE representative and the Chisinau representatives discussed a possibility of resuming the negotiations in an expanded format. Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration George Balan said after the meeting that Moldova was ready to start talks in the expanded format as soon as possible.

At the same time, Meier-Klodt said that the intermediaries did not need negotiations for the sake of negotiations and that talks in the expanded format would resume when the sides were ready for dialogue and when concrete solutions would have been prepared.

Negotiations for the settlement in Transdniestria in the expanded "5+2" format have been stalled since 2014 when Tiraspol accused the Moldovan authorities of pressure. Germany, which took over the OSCE rotating presidency, tried to reanimate the dialogue this year. However, the intermediaries and observers decided that the sides were not yet ready for resuming the dialogue after visits to Moldova and Transdniestria.